Nioh
by pyrat-xo
Summary: Agyo and Ungyo. One isn't whole without the other, and that's coincidentally where the similarities end.


_Just a note here to explain a few of the incredibly dweeby cultural things I've managed to cram in here that everyone should maybe know before reading. Agon & Unsui are directly based on the Kongou-Rikishi, two benevolent gods who accompanied and protected the Buddha, whose names are Agyo and Ungyo. Agyo is usually depicted with his mouth open, as if saying 'Ah' (representing the beginning of all things, or an inhale) and Ungyo has his mouth closed, as if saying 'Un' or 'Om' (representing death, or an exhale). They're known as the 'Nioh', or 仁王, sort of playing into the saying that the Shinryuuji Nagas are the 'gods' of Kantou._

* * *

Unsui's packing for Enma when he finds it, an old photo album sitting in a box under his bed, alongside a mostly-deflated soccer ball and several volumes of 'Whistle!'. It's been a while since he'd even thought about that particular book, a birthday present from over a decade ago, small and leather-bound. Very adult-like, which is why he'd asked for it in the first place. Unsui never liked the cartoonish albums kids that age tended to receive, colorful, loud anime designs on them.

(His interests switch nearly as quickly as Agon's; he didn't think then that he'd ever stop reading Ippo, but if he did, then he'd have to find another album, and that would be a pain.)

It's probably the only one in the house not filled with pictures of Agon standing on podiums with a trophy in hand, or Agon streaking past other elementary- and middle schoolers for track team exhibitions, or Agon doing wheelies on his bike (which Unsui figured out after a while, but it's still _difficult_ for him), though every picture in it does have Agon front and center. Kind of.

The first photo is a stroller (double, of course), with a beautiful but frail-looking woman kneeling behind it, two statues in her hands, smiling brightly at the camera. Two babies- they couldn't be more than ten months- one red-faced and screaming, the other clutching his blanket, occupy most of the frame. Neither of them are particularly interested in the statues, but then again both of them were too young to realize how much it would eventually dominate their lives.

Agyo and Ungyo. One isn't whole without the other, and that's coincidentally where the similarities end because Agyo and Ungyo are fundamentally equal and that was a nice thought for Unsui, for the time it lasted.

(Still, it didn't stop Unsui from going through every single photo album in their house to dig these pictures up, going off half-remembered glimpses and hazy memories. Agon helped, because this was before Unsui became aware of how much the adults praised his brother over him, and before he started to realize how different they really were.)

The next picture, they're a little older and they've both been placed on those stone guardian lions outside the local Chinese restaurant. Agon's leaning over his lion's head, practically standing on its back, mouth open in a snarl and little hand raised, fingers curved into claws to match. Unsui's got both arms folded on his lion's head, flashing a pleased, close-mouthed smile.

The ones after that look like elementary school.

In front of a temple, posing for real this time. Unsui's trying to be serious but his lips are curved up at the corners, arms down at his sides, a stick clutched in his hand. Agon has one hand raised, fist clenched, baring his teeth at the camera.

One in Nara, where there aren't many statue pictures but there are two deer, both male, trying to intimidate the two of them into handing over the pieces of bread in their pockets. They're back-to-back, Unsui's eyes wide and locked on the points of one stag's antler, one hand clutching the hem of his twin's shirt from the back and the other palm-out, as if to push the deer's snout away; Agon has one arm up, pulled back and ready to swing. (Coincidentally, this was when Unsui figured out that their father prescribes to tough love, though he probably would have stepped in if the deer tried to gore them.)

There's a rash of pictures from an early middle school trip to Kyoto, the pair of them posing in front of everything from actual Nioh to komainu statues. Everything from serious pictures to silly ones; Unsui remembers how some of the teachers had cooed when they'd insisted on joining the same group, despite being in different classes. Even (especially) then, Agon's sweet, wide-eyed smile was deadly.

The last picture in the lineup is from the last year of middle school, before they'd left for Shinryuuji. Dad had insisted on one last batch of pictures before his boys are off to high school for the majority of the next three years. Unsui looks the way he always does in front of the shrine by their house, luckily not the same as he did the night before, mouth pressed in a thin line. Agon's sneering, one hand pushing his shades up his forehead.

Unsui had stopped gathering pictures by then, stopped insisting that Agon take one with him whenever they ran into something particularly interesting. It was probably around then that he'd moved from vaguely resenting his twin for his ability to hating the similarities between them.

Unsui's thinking back on this last year: Agon at the gym, Agon playing from the start of their games (insisting they use the Dragonfly from the beginning for _every single one_ though only really getting his way half the time), Agon at practice, Agon driving the team so hard the freshmen were begging Unsui to ask him to slow down. Which he didn't, but he did shift their schedules around a bit so only the second and third-years would be subject to his younger twin.

(He wishes he'd had the nerve to ask Agon to take a picture at the gate, before their graduation ceremony and before they'd packed up and brought all their things back home on an hour-long train ride.)

Unsui remembers something, abruptly, and whips out his phone for it, scanning the top line of his inbox. There's a new mail Ikkyu had sent a few hours back, a picture taken nearly four months ago that he hasn't had a chance to get printed (but seriously, who stores things on paper anymore?).

It's him and Agon in their football uniforms, stepping off the stairs in front of the school and walking through the gateway. Ikkyu had backed up enough so the statues at the entrance are visible (how did he _know_?), and he'd caught Agon mid-sentence, one hand gesticulating wildly and the other on Unsui's shoulder, using it as an armrest. Unsui'd been listening quietly, mostly. Neither of them are smiling, but Unsui doesn't smile much anyway and because the girls Agon had brought by had left earlier, he doesn't have to _act_ sweet around Unsui.

It's such a painfully normal picture. It feels the way he and Agon used to be, when they were twins, when they were equal (Unsui thinks back and he really can't remember a time he was ever Agon's equal but it was middle school when he'd really started to _feel_ that way).

He prints it out at the convenience store, leaving the album open on his bed at home. When he gets back, picture clutched in one hand as he bursts into his room, Unsui stops in his tracks when he sees Agon already there, book open on his lap and smirking down at the open page. He looks up when the door creaks to a stop, expression shifting from amusement to curiosity when he sees the photo in Unsui's hand.

"Give it."

Unsui hesitates for a second before approaching and pressing the photo into Agon's palm. He sits on the foot of the bed, pulls his feet under his knees and lets his hands rest on his ankles. "Ikkyu took that a few months ago."

Agon's already flipped to the end where there's a slot for one more picture and he deftly slides it into place, then slams the book shut, handing it back as he walks out. He'd only come back for a second to switch his Juliets for a pair of his new vintage Romeos (the full-jacket ones, not the new half-jacket ones, which according to Agon look like absolute shit) before the album distracted him. "You need a bigger fucking book, Unko."

The book goes into his suitcase, so they'll have it at their new place (where it'll probably end up back under his bed because Unsui actually expects to have teammates over, if the amount of time the Nagas spent on his side of his and Agon's room at Shinryuuji is any indication).

He's clearing his messages when he finally sees the text Ikkyu had included. It's short, but Unsui decides not to delete it after all.

「仁王。」


End file.
